Turkish pilots and crew face court verdict over Ghosn escape

TC-TSR, a private jet which was used during the escape of ousted Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn from Japan to Lebanon through Turkey is pictured in an unknown location, July 5, 2019. (REUTERS)

• The pilots will struggle to work in the aviation sector again and will have their licenses revoked

ANKARA: A trial date has been set for July 3 by a court in Istanbul, following the indictment of seven people involved in the escape of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn from Japan to Lebanon via Turkey.
In the indictment, prosecutors are seeking up to eight years in jail each for four pilots and an airline official over charges of migrant trafficking, while two flight attendants face a one-year prison term each for not reporting the crime.
The four pilots and two flight attendants have denied any involvement in the smuggling plan, the Turkish DHA agency reported. The company employee and four pilots remain in custody, while both flight attendants were released after being interrogated.
One of Turkey’s most prominent aviation experts said there was a general expectation that the pilots would be released after the trial or by the end of this year at the latest.
“However, in the event of an early release, this might have complicated repercussions in terms of organized human trafficking because this case has a global dimension,” the expert told Arab News.
The pilots will struggle to work in the aviation sector again and will have their licenses revoked, he added.
In a statement in January, Turkish airline company MNG Jet denied any involvement in the escape, saying that its planes were used illegally in the escape from Osaka to Istanbul, and then to Beirut.
In April, the Turkish parliament passed a controversial amnesty law to de-populate the country’s prisons by nearly a third, in order to protect detainees from the coronavirus outbreak. The new law includes those convicted of smuggling.
“According to the current law, migrant smuggling foresees imprisonment for a term of three to eight years maximum. After the new amnesty law, they can be immediately released considering the detention period,” Umur Yildirim, a Turkish attorney, told Arab News.
The new law cuts the term of inmates in half, with an additional year of probation.